The European Left in the 1960s and 1970s:Social Democrats and/vs. Eurocommunists

Divided by history and ideology, Western European social democrats and communists were engaged in a Cold War of their own. However, starting from the 1960s, informal contacts intensified between the two fractions of the Left. Using the Italian Communist Party as a case study, Dr. Di Donato will offer insight into this dialogue and discuss longer-term implications, namely: To what extend did these contacts actually facilitate the overcoming of the ideological division on the European Left? How can the study of 'party diplomacy' on the Left contribute to the scholarship of the history of the Cold War in Europe?

Michele Di Donato| is a Visiting Fellow at LSE IDEAS. Dr. Di Donato’s new project deals with the re-definition of the cultural and ideological relations between the European social democracies and the US in the 1970s, after the end of the post-war ‘golden age’.

Chair

Dr Svetozar Rajak|is the Academic Director of LSE IDEAS and serves on the Management Committee. He is also Senior Lecturer at the Department of International History.

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